With such a geographically visual image for an album title, vibraphonist Tim Collins leads his quartet through six original compositions and two covers where one's mental imagery can conjure various sublime locations through the tonal colors that this ensemble strives for and attains. Collins' quartet – pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Matt Clohesy, and drummer Tommy Crane – assert their energy immediately on "TNT," the very energetic and appropriately- named opener. Collins' sound benefits from Grissett's accompaniment, which propels the melody while Crane explores his entire kit. Crane's tom-tom runs and cymbal splashes help evoke a scene of being at sea. …

With such a geographically visual image for an album title, vibraphonist Tim Collins leads his quartet through six original compositions and two covers where one's mental imagery can conjure various sublime locations through the tonal colors that this ensemble strives for and attains.

Collins' quartet – pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Matt Clohesy, and drummer Tommy Crane – assert their energy immediately on "TNT," the very energetic and appropriately- named opener. Collins' sound benefits from Grissett's accompaniment, which propels the melody while Crane explores his entire kit. Crane's tom-tom runs and cymbal splashes help evoke a scene of being at sea. At times, this song's more potent, scenic parts recall Tony Williams' "The Overture" from The Story of Neptune. When the soloists clear a path for Crane at the song's crescendo, he responds with a solo that keeps the waves crashing against the rocks.

A different tonal texture -- one that toys with a New Orleans second-line flavor and strut – emerges on "Army Brat." At times tight, but most times loose, the rhythm section's stop-and-go variations in feel allow Collins a springboard to segue seamlessly from bright melody to brighter improvisation. This performance culminates with a feisty exchange between piano and vibes that Crane helps keeps happening with a roundhouse romp on his cymbals and drums. On a disc characterized by well-oiled tightness, this moment serves as the most uninhibited.

Collins also covers compositions by Bjork Gudmundsdottir -- the singer from Iceland -- and Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne's "Into the Great Wide Open." On Bjork's "The Anchor Song," the ensemble attempts and achieves a quiet, panoramic, take-it-all-in visual suggested by this album's title. Clohesy's thick, low-end solo serves as an effective contrast and lead-in to Collins, whose instrument's natural shimmering sound and resonance is at its peak here. Crane's cymbal work and quiet thunder rolls from his tom-toms at this song's peak provide this song's picturesque effect, along with Grissett, whose (mostly unaccompanied) solo carries the imagery further to its contemplative conclusion.

For Petty and Lynne's "Into the Great Wide Open," Collins begins with a straight reading that is punctuated at unpredictable moments by Crane's triplet-drops that alternate from snare to tom-tom, with an interspersing of cymbals. This contrast works quite well and serves as a preview, for as the performance progresses, Crane alternates between a brief, soft backbeat and some cross-sticking, while Collins' playing evolves as he immerses himself into an improvisation where the sound waves from his vibes spread out evenly, farther and farther, much like the way waves in water move after a pebble is plopped into it.

The scrolling notes of pianist of Yelena Echemoff embroider imagery soundscapes that soothe, excite and entrap the listener in an experience beyond earthly dimensions. Her latest album Flying Steps features Peter Erskine on drums and Darek Oleszkiewicz on double bass, and establishes Echemoff as an engaging pianist and composer of ambient bliss.

The scrolling notes of pianist of Yelena Echemoff embroider imagery soundscapes that soothe, excite and entrap the listener in an experience beyond earthly dimensions. Her latest album Flying Steps features Peter Erskine on drums and Darek Oleszkiewicz on double bass, and establishes Echemoff as an engaging pianist and composer of ambient bliss.

Tracks like "Promise" and "A Smile" have a sensual gait that incites the listener to drift off into a luxuriating oasis of melodic improvisations. The soft curls and relaxing lunges of Echemoff's keys in "Good Morning" produced a soothing ambiance, and shift to somber etudes along "For Harry." The dulcet doodling of her keys through "Isolated" imbues a contemplative lilt changing to an upbeat wandering in "Where Is Maxim?" The pensive waddling of her keys in "Tears Will Come" are supported by light drum taps and deep toned bass notes, which manifest into a hypnotic swagger in "Insomnia" with broad sweeps in Echemoff's keys.

Her music is rooted in classical chamber music concepts and orchestral structures coalesced with pop music-inspired rhythms and influenced by jazz improvisations. Born and raised in Moscow, Russia, Yelena Echemoff began playing the piano at four years old. Her mother, Olga was her first piano teacher. Yelena was further educated at the Piano School of the Moscow State Conservatory where she earned a Master's Degree in piano performance and pedagogy. She worked as a piano teacher for the Moscow Music Schools. She and husband left the Soviet Union and have been living the USA since 1991, where she developed a discography as an independent recording artist adding Flying Steps to her lengthy catalog in 2011.

Multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer Joe Blassett's Chillin' Out In Dark Places is a difficult recording to categorize. While it has nice subtle rhythmic grooves in the background of every track, the material placed on top of the smooth waves is multihued, angled, and at times quite disjunct. The layering effect sometimes works well, but at other times the collages are difficult to discern.

Multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer Joe Blassett's Chillin' Out In Dark Places is a difficult recording to categorize. While it has nice subtle rhythmic grooves in the background of every track, the material placed on top of the smooth waves is multihued, angled, and at times quite disjunct. The layering effect sometimes works well, but at other times the collages are difficult to discern.

On "Tell Me Something," for example, his saxophone calls out in short bursts while a single vocal male voice repeats the title. More ambient than directional, this tune doesn't seem to find its footing. On the flip side, "Help Me Pray" is a sweet menagerie of synthesizer washes, organ sounds, a nice laid back rhythmic beat, and electric piano chords that form, at times, polytonal counterpoint. While at times the overall effect is disconcerting, especially when the chords and synths clash, in the end the effect is more mystical than proportional and works on its own footing. The same kind of polytonal aspects reappear, to a lesser degree of success on "Better Days."

"Deep Dish Grind" is a more uptempo electronica blending of sounds, vocal and synthesized, and harmonies that fit together into a tapestry that congeals well. When the synthed acoustic piano enters the result is hipness personified. "Morning After," however, is not able to handle the mix of Philip Glass "Einstein On The Beach" inspired vocals, ostinato-ish lead synth part with the rhythmic groove quite as well.

While this music appears more intended to be sold to music licensing companies that supply movies with background music, like much of the music by saxophonist and keyboard conceptual artist Rick Keller, Blessett still fashions a few really nice ambient jazz tracks.

Fjordne (given name, Shunichiro Fujimoto) produces music that is adventurous, expansive and a bit other-worldly, yet highly listenable and absorbing. His approach is to feature the piano as the melodic centerpiece and have electronic sounds create various moods around it. The effects change from track to track, but are sometimes wistful, other times nostalgic and occasionally mysterious.

Fjordne (given name, Shunichiro Fujimoto) produces music that is adventurous, expansive and a bit other-worldly, yet highly listenable and absorbing. His approach is to feature the piano as the melodic centerpiece and have electronic sounds create various moods around it. The effects change from track to track, but are sometimes wistful, other times nostalgic and occasionally mysterious.

This is not Fjordne's first recording, having made four previously, and this is his second for the Kitchen label. The label is known for high-end art productions. The limited-run CD normally comes in a 7-inch cover with specially produced accompanying materials, including a short story by the composer, program and artwork. None of this came with the review copy and so we will focus on the music rather than the printed product.

The inspiration for this work comes from Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations," from which his short story derives, and the tracks are a series of vignettes that evoke a sense of wonder, loss and decadence. Presumably, the Charles of the title refers to Dickens. Much of the beauty of the album comes from Fjordne's remarkable piano melodies that continue unabated throughout, although they change with more nostalgic sounds in earlier tracks, swinging, groove-based playing in the middle and greater dissonance towards the end. The last track brings us back to a mood evoking the earliest ones. Influenced by pianists such as Bobo Stenson and Paul Bley, one can hear some elements of free jazz and European third stream in Fjordne's playing.

The electronic sounds add or run counter to the mood of the piano and vary from percussion, to strings, to vocals to ambient sounds. In some cases, they offer a countermelody, giving the impression of an Ivesian polytonality or the feeling that one is listening to two pieces of music coming from different rooms. The effect is both startling and quite lovely. The vocal pieces, such as in "Gathering" and "hope," sound like cabaret music from another country, world-weary and regretful. With "forfeiture" Fjordne starts to get his groove on and while the rhythm is never fast, it is always insistent, forcing an intensity to the piece. "hope" is anything but hopeful and the listener is not disappointed to hear a female voice break in with a sad, childlike refrain, followed by a swirling chaos of fragmented melody and ambient sounds. "Ald square" continues the mood, replacing the vocals with saxophone and seeming like a fever dream. A beautiful melody slowly breaks apart in "Ebenze" before coming back to a resolution, while "antidotal" does nearly the opposite, beginning with a set of fragments that dissolve into a melody, that is then joined by an distant, dissonant chorus.

Fjordne clearly has a unique vision for his work and I would certainly like to hear more. The print run for the physical edition of this CD is 700 copies, but the music is also available in digital format.

Rarely does an ensemble come along that has its own vision, one that is rooted in the music the members heard around them and grew up with, yet is still original in conception. That is truly the case with the Montalban Quintet. One of the first to incorporate indie music conceptualizations placed within jazz frameworks, this ensemble has staked out a unique path.

Rarely does an ensemble come along that has its own vision, one that is rooted in the music the members heard around them and grew up with, yet is still original in conception. That is truly the case with the Montalban Quintet. One of the first to incorporate indie music conceptualizations placed within jazz frameworks, this ensemble has staked out a unique path.

Formed by musicians from the University of California at San Diego, their original compositions, as well as those they cover by artists such as John Coltrane and Peter Erskine, are all run through the members own kaleidoscopic eyepieces. It’s a little bit like post-Beatles meets Staind with crosscurrents of Chicago’s horn section mixed in.

All of the tunes are mixed into each other, with the result being a non-stop stream of music that doesn’t really change from one track to the next as evolve. Occasionally extramusical devices are thrown into the barrage, like caterwauls and half-valve wails from the trumpet on “Abajo del Mar,” or non-defined beat oriented Miles Davis-ish Pangeae like grooves as on “Lonnie’s Lament.” Occasionally there are real melodies mixed in, as on “Flamenco Lake,” but this is rare.This is challenging music, to say the least, that both rewards and, upon completion of listening, leaves more questions asked than answered. This post-Phish intermixed with sullen grunge elements music might be the most original music you’ll listen to this year, if you have courage to walk down this road. It’s not really about arriving as much as it is about the trip.

Psychedelic pranksters M'lumbo return with the amusingly titled Celestial Ghetto. The title of the album is quite fitting as M'lumbo draw from many sources, and can alternate seamlessly between the gritty and the ethereal. With M'lumbo, there is no distinction between high and low art where refined soloing is juxtaposed against a sense of nutty humor. This might be irritating to some (why obscure a perfectly good solo with seemingly random samples?) but this recording is refreshingly free from intellectual pretenses.

Psychedelic pranksters M'lumbo return with the amusingly titled Celestial Ghetto. The title of the album is quite fitting as M'lumbo draw from many sources and can alternate seamlessly between the gritty and the ethereal. With M'lumbo, there is no distinction between high and low art where refined soloing is juxtaposed against a sense of nutty humor. This might be irritating to some (why obscure a perfectly good solo with seemingly random samples?) but this recording is refreshingly free from intellectual pretenses.

The sound itself is expansive and dense. There is a lot of space and a lot of clutter in this music at precisely the same time. Psychedelic washes of sound and a variety samples help create a sense of druggy distance, but there are so many solos and voices that the songs can sound frantic and unorganized. The production is excellently done. A bad job would have hopelessly buried the layers of this album in an unrecognizable mess. The album sounds immediate, full and clear enough to hear everything that is going on—and there is a lot going on.

The winding solos, room for improvisation and general daring tip Celestial Ghetto off as a jazz record. That said, fans of left field hip-hop or electronically minded jam bands will likely feel right at home with this recording. Digitalized beats and samples are prevalent. There are bleeps and bloops, funky drums and smug samples in every nook and cranny of this recording.

In short, the playing is good enough to reward careful listening, although the samples can often make it difficult to concentrate on the subtleties of the instrumentalists. But Celestial Ghetto succeeds on its own terms. It is a stubbornly original, well played and fun recording. Any music fan looking for something unique, carefree and perhaps a bit insane might do well to check this release out.

Dear jazzreview music community - Just this August my debut, 'Cycles Of Fusion' was released. The music style blends elements of jazz, rock, blues, and funk into groove-based compositions featuring retro/vintage keyboards & atmospheric soundscapes over loop/sample-based rhythm section arrangements. I have made the track "Eternal Boundaries" available here for free download. Hope you'll enjoy it.

]]>morrice.blackwell@gmail.com (Chris Rossi)Free Jazz MP3 DownloadsWed, 12 Oct 2011 18:59:11 -0500Mother's Son by Dave Georgettihttp://jazzreview.com/free-jazz-mp3-downloads/mothers-son-by-dave-georgetti.html
http://jazzreview.com/free-jazz-mp3-downloads/mothers-son-by-dave-georgetti.htmlA life long musical journey began when Dave picked up his first guitar at age five. The journey continued in earnest when he began his professional music studies at Berklee College Of Music where he received double Bachelor of Arts degrees in Jazz Composition and Music Production & Engineering. As a master guitarist and composer his original compositions embody a unique blend of rhythms, harmonies and musical textures. His music transcends traditional Latin music by combining jazz elements with acoustic and electric instruments, while introducing new Latin Fusion grooves.

It all begins with a groove for Dave, it is the rhythmic groove in his original compositions that propels the music and defines the overall flow of the song. Laying down the groove foundation with the drums, percussion and bass gives the song direction. His recent CD release Mother's Son, represents a new dimension in Latin Jazz. The fusion of traditional acoustic Latin-style guitar with hot electric guitar brings Latin Jazz to a new level.

Dave's music is undeniably rhythmic driven. His Brazilian and Cuban percussion create pulsating rhythms with timbales, congas, tan tan, pandeiro, cabasa, guiro and çuica that drive and adorn the music's Latin grooves. The underlying elements are Afro-Cuban, Mambo, Cha Cha, Samba and Bossa Nova. The music on Mother's Son is not based on only one rhythm style, truly all of the songs are based on original grooves wrapped around various Latin styles. For example, the tune Baile de Fuego is based on a combination of funk and mambo and the result is a pulsating dance song that could be heard in any dance club.

Having a great song is only half of the formula for a great musical performance. By having the highest level of musicianship in his group, his music really comes to life. "If my audience likes the recorded version of this music, they will be blown away with the live version."

]]>morrice.blackwell@gmail.com (Diannesantos11@gmail.com)Free Jazz MP3 DownloadsTue, 20 Sep 2011 10:35:28 -0500Cycles Of Fusion by Chris Rossi on the Net Dot Music labelhttp://jazzreview.com/new-jazz-releases/cycles-of-fusion-by-chris-rossi-on-the-net-dot-music-label.html
http://jazzreview.com/new-jazz-releases/cycles-of-fusion-by-chris-rossi-on-the-net-dot-music-label.htmlHello jazzreview music community! I am keyboard and electric guitar player Chris Rossi out of the Boston, Mass. area on the Net Dot Music label - an Internet based independent record label specializing in instrumental fusion: all-instrumental music that blends several styles and genres. My music style blends elements of jazz, rock, blues, R&B, and funk into groove-based compositions featuring retro/vintage keyboards & atmospheric soundscapes over loop/sample-based rhythm section arrangements. If you enjoy jazz rock, jazz fusion, ambient jazz, some progressive rock or other related instrumental music fusion, you will probably connect with my music.

'Cycles Of Fusion' - released August, 2011, is built on compositions coming together through fusing elements of Jazz, Rock, Blues and Funk, melding a universal sound. Along with acoustic guitar and piano sounds, several classic retro-keyboard sounds were used along with sequences, arps, atmospheric synths and electric guitar with effects, at times creating "celestial soundscapes", staying true to the theme and hopefully creating something interesting to a listeners ears. Through osmosis, I channeled sounds and ideas from some of my favorite bands and musicians.

]]>morrice.blackwell@gmail.com (Chris Rossi)New Jazz ReleasesMon, 19 Sep 2011 13:47:46 -0500Cycles Of Fusion by Chris Rossihttp://jazzreview.com/free-jazz-mp3-downloads/cycles-of-fusion-by-chris-rossi.html
http://jazzreview.com/free-jazz-mp3-downloads/cycles-of-fusion-by-chris-rossi.htmlHello jazzreview music community! I am keyboard and electric guitar player Chris Rossi out of the Boston, Mass. area. Just this August my debut, 'Cycles Of Fusion' was released. The music style blends elements of jazz, rock, blues, and funk into groove-based compositions featuring retro/vintage keyboards & atmospheric soundscapes over loop/sample-based rhythm section arrangements. I have made the track "Reflection" available here for you all to download and hopefully enjoy.

Hello jazzreview music community! I am keyboard and electric guitar player Chris Rossi out of the Boston, Mass. area. Just this August my debut, 'Cycles Of Fusion' was released. The music style blends elements of jazz, rock, blues, and funk into groove-based compositions featuring retro/vintage keyboards & atmospheric soundscapes over loop/sample-based rhythm section arrangements. I have made the track "Reflection" available here for you all to download and hopefully enjoy.

Come check out all the tracks from 'Cycles Of Fusion' at my jukebox link, where you will find high quality .mp3 audio excerpts of significant track times.